


The Arrangement

by imtoolazytothinkofausername



Series: A New Start [2]
Category: Alex Rider - Anthony Horowitz
Genre: Gen, Transition fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:01:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26363854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imtoolazytothinkofausername/pseuds/imtoolazytothinkofausername
Summary: Faking his own death was surprisingly boring.
Relationships: Yassen Gregorovich & Alex Rider
Series: A New Start [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1896277
Comments: 6
Kudos: 63





	The Arrangement

**Author's Note:**

> Note. I do not own Alex Rider or associated characters, and I am not writing this for profit. This is kind of a transition fic. Mostly just meant to set the scene for possible future stories.

The next few months formed what was quite frankly the most boring time of Alex’s life. Like most things, Alex could place the blame squarely on MI6’s shoulders. Yassen had set fire to the warehouse, leaving the bodies of the drug dealer and his guards inside. Given how far it was from the nearest town, the hope was that the fire would burn long enough to render the remains unidentifiable. Provided MI6 believed Alex had been captured by Peterson, this could result in Alex being presumed dead. However, they couldn’t rely on that, and they would need to take precautions. 

The plan was to make sure that Alex wasn’t caught on camera during the time MI6’s investigation into his disappearance would be most active. It would be different, Yassen explained, if other countries’ Secret Service agencies weren’t aware of Alex’s involvement with MI6, but rumor of a teenage spy had spread through the world of espionage, and most countries had at least one file on Alex. Because of this, Alex needed to stay out of sight for most of the journey. If there was a security camera, there was a chance that MI6 would catch sight of them and have them in custody within the hour. Staying out of sight often involved hiding in crates to be smuggled into helicopters, unable to come out until the helicopter was over the sea. Other times this meant spending several days in a country and never seeing the outside of a safe house. On rare occasions when Alex absolutely needed to go out in public, he had to disguise himself in a way that masked every possible identifying feature, up to and including his facial structure. 

Throughout this time, Yassen came and went, sometimes leaving Alex alone for days. He made sure that Alex always had enough basic necessities, and he often left Alex with books to read and videos to watch. Most of these were educational, focusing on a wide array of topics, such as hacking, currency, and even Photoshop. Yassen told him that these would help him form a new life. Others were novels, clearly meant to keep Alex from getting too bored. And then, of course, there were details to memorize about his new identity. 

It was maddening not having anyone to talk to but Yassen and sometimes not even Yassen. Alex could leave at any time, of course. Yassen had made it clear that he wasn’t a prisoner. Yassen might not be able to help Alex if Alex got himself caught, and the man might choose to leave Alex to his fate if Alex was reckless enough to put them in danger, but adhering to Yassen’s instructions was Alex’s choice. Tempting as the boredom made it, though, Alex never flouted Yassen’s rules. A year ago he might have done so, allowing his restlessness to ruin everything. Now, Alex just wanted to get away, and if that meant he sometimes felt like punching a hole in the wall just to have something different to do, so be it. 

Finally, after three months, they arrived at a town in Canada and Alex was finally able to relax. He and Yassen shared a house by the coast. On the outside it looked perfectly normal. The inside was rigged with state-of-the-art security systems, and it contained several rooms that no one outside of the business or below a certain degree of wealth would think to include. Alex was allowed to come and go as he pleased, and Yassen even encouraged him to explore the town. Here, Yassen went by the name of Michael Simmons. He was a business man, upper middle class. Alex was his nephew, Jeremy Simmons. Jeremy’s parents had died in a train accident recently, and his Uncle Michael was Jeremy’s next of kin. It was difficult, and Michael would freely admit, if pressed, that he was worried about the stress shifting countries would have on his nephew, and there was every possibility that they would end up moving to England, but for now they were hoping to make it work in Canada. This would give them a convenient excuse if they had to leave suddenly. 

It had been a while since he’d had an adult to truly care for him, and it didn’t come naturally to Alex. Even Jack had been unable to truly protect him, albeit not for lack of trying. She had been forced to watch as MI6 put Alex at risk, and Alex knew how helpless she had felt each time he’d come back with a little less of himself. There was nothing in their lives that MI6 couldn’t touch, couldn’t manipulate to get Alex to work for them again, and that knowledge had poisoned Jack’s life as well as Alex’s. Alex would never forgive MI6 for forcing them into a situation where Jack felt the only way to protect Alex was to put her own life at risk, for making the last years of Jack’s life a living hell. In his mind, Alan Blunt and Mrs. Jones had just as much of Jack’s blood on their hands as Razim and Julius. 

But Yassen was different than Jack. He was even different than Ian. Yassen didn’t try to be Alex’s parent in a traditional way, and Alex was grateful for that. He still wasn’t entirely sure how to relate to Yassen. When they were in public, they were careful to play the role of uncle and nephew, but in private...their relationship was harder to define. Yassen had been the cause of much of the trauma in Alex’s life, yet he’d also been the only one to truly protect Alex, and despite the assassin being difficult to read, Alex didn’t doubt that Yassen cared about him. Alex supposed they’d just need to grow used to living with each other. 

Yassen didn’t set curfews or make rules for Alex to follow. He expected Alex to help out around the house, and he expected Alex to make time for whatever lessons Yassen deemed necessary. However, at the end of the day, this was for Alex’s benefit. If Alex wanted to have his own life, one free of MI6’s influence, he would let Yassen teach him. That wasn’t to say that Yassen didn’t care one way or the other. He had very strong opinions about the type of life a sixteen-year-old boy should have and about what Blunt and Jones had done to Alex. But, as Yassen told Alex, it had to be Alex’s choice to leave MI6. 

“You’ve been forced to grow up far too fast, little Alex,” Yassen said when he was explaining their arrangement. “I can’t give you a completely normal life, but I can at least make sure you’re able to chart your own path. You’re old enough and you’ve been through enough to decide what type of life you want.” 

It wasn’t a hard choice. Alex had made it back in the warehouse, but he’d also made it several times during the past few years. He’d lost count of the times he’d tried to leave MI6. They’d always disregarded his decision. Now, though, Alex had someone who cared about what he wanted, who seemed to care about Alex. For the first time in years, Alex felt he had a real chance at getting out, and he wasn’t going to waste it. 


End file.
